1800.] 
Tt is.a fact in the hiftory of printing wor- 
thy of record, thar the Stationer’s Com- 
pany printed and fold laft year upwards 
of three hundred and forty thoufand copies 
of Moore’s Almanack. Their fict edi- 
tion of this popular work is generally 
three hundred thoufand, and thefe are ge- 
merally fold off in the courfe of a month. 
By.a letter from M. Millin at Paris 
to Dr. Hacer in London, we underftand 
that the celebrated Mr. Deguigwes lately 
died there. He was indigent from his 
obftinacy, as he would not receive any 
favour from the new government. It 
were to be wifhed, that his manufcripts 
fhould be publifhed. His great work upon 
the Conformity between the Egyptians and 
Chinefe has never been publihed. 
Mr. HorrMaNN, a moft refpectable 
bookfeller at Hamburgh, has been fined 
fifty dollars for felling a copy of “ Mé- 
moires Secretes fur la Ruffie.’ The book 
could not have had a better advertifement. 
Mr. Nemwicu, author of the Polyglot 
Lexicon, &c. has recently publifhed at 
Hamburgh his Travels in England in the 
year 1799. 
Profeflor OLtvartus has juft publifhed 
the twelfth number of Le Nord Litteraire, 
and we are pleafed to find, that it obtains 
confiderable circulation and attention in 
London. The number of fubfcribers to it 
at Remnant’s, Deboffe’s, Geifweiller’s, &c. 
and at the foreign department of the Ge- 
neral Poft-Office, is greater than for any 
other foreign journal. 
The fulminating preparations of mer- 
cury with fulphur have jong been known 
to chemifts. A fulminating mercury, 
however, entirely free from fulphur, has 
lately been difcovered by Eowarp How- 
ARD, efq. F.R.S. The laft volume of 
the Philof. Tranf. contains an important 
memoir on this fubjeét by the inventor, of 
which the following is an abftraét.—100 
' grains of mercury are to be diflolved by 
the afliftance of heat in 14 ounce, by mea- 
fure, of nitric acid of the {p. grav. of 
about 1.3 ; this {elution being fuffered to 
cool is to be poured upon z ounce meafures 
of alcohol previoufly introduced into any 
conventent glals veflel: by the application 
of a gentle heat an effervefcence is excited, 
a white fume begins to undulate on che 
furface of the liquor, and a precipiiation 
gradually takes place: the precipitate is 
to be jmmediately collected on a fi.ter, and 
well wafhed with dittilled water, and then 
dried in a low heat, not exceeding that of 
a water-bath. The colour of the powder 
varies from white to nearly black, and the 
quantity afforded by 100 grains of mer- 
cury is between 120 and 132 grains. 
MontTuriy Mac. No. 62. 
Literary and Philofophical Intelligence. 
49 
The powder thus prepared is the ful- 
minating mercury, which, if mixed with 
concentrated fulphuric acid, is imme-~ 
diately decompofed with a loud explofion 
and violent effervefcence: it alfoexplodes 
with mere heat if raifed to the temperas 
ture of 368°. or upwards of Fahrenheit. 
Three or four grains being laid on an 
anvil, and ftruck with a flat hammer, pro- 
duced a ftunning noife, and the faces both 
of the hammer and anvil were much in- 
dented. An eleétrical thock fent through 
a few grains produces a fimilar effect. It 
may alfo be fired by flint and fteel, in the 
fame manner as common gunpowder, In 
order to afcertain the effects of this fub- 
ftance, compared with gunpowder, a feries 
of experiments was inftituted, the princi- 
pal of which are the following : 
1. A gunpowder-proof, capable of contain- 
ing eleven grajns, was filled and fired in the 
ufual way; the report was fharp, but not 
loud ; there was no perceptible recoil 5 but 
the upper part of the barrel was laid openy 
and the hand of the regifter was ftruck off, 
2. A gun was charged with 17 grains of 
the powder and a leaden bullet, and firedby 
a fufee ; the report was feeble, no recoil had 
taken place, and the ball was driven into a 
block of wood apparently with a force equal 
to half a charge of gunpowder, 
3. The fame gun was charged with 24 
grains of mercurial powder; the report om 
firing was about equal to that of an ordinary 
charge of gunpowder; the breech was found 
flawed, and torn in every direétion, and the 
gold touch-hole was driven out. 
4. Two blocks of wood were bored to the 
fame depth, and in one, half an ounce of the 
beft Dartford gunpowder was confined, and in 
the other, the fame quantity of fulminating 
mercury. The blocks were buried in fandy 
and fired by a trains that containing the gun- 
powder was fimply fplit in three pieces; the 
other was burft in every dire€tion, and the 
parts contiguous to the powder were abfo- 
lutely pounded, yet the whole hung toge« 
ther, whereas the block in which the gun- 
powder had been was fairly divided. 
The geicral refult of thefe trials is, 
that the mercurial powder acts with much 
fuperior energy within certain limits, but 
that it can never fuperfede the ule of gun- 
powder as a projectile force. It may, 
perhaps be ufed to advantage in biaiting 
rocks for miners. 
It has already been noticed in the 
Monthly Magazine, that the oxymuriatic 
acid, which is at prefent fo largely uled 
for bleaching, will difcharge writing-ink 
from paper: this dangerous property has 
given occaficn to feveral frauds, in confe- 
quence of which it became a matter of im- 
portance to difcover a way of rettoring 
writing thus effaced: this has been ets 
feted 
